MEADE 


fejrartnmtt of (Eommrrrr anit Uahnr 

BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION 

« y*\ 

Division of Information 

ItaJiutglmt 

NATURALIZATION OF ALIENS 

aama .ii-:.,saaa=. IN =^ , -i_.s.- 

The United States 


How to Become Citizens 
What is Required 
Rights and Duties 


Prepared by the National Society of the Sons of 
the American Revolution. 



WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

























FEB 16 


ft or 0. 


iyo9 






NATURALIZATION OF ALIENS 

IN 

THE UNITED STATES 


The object of this little paper is to tell those 
coming from foreign lands how they may become 
citizens of the United States. It will also tell 
something of the rights which come to those who 
do become citizens. 

There are many reasons why the foreign-born 
person who comes here should wish to become a 
citizen. Some of these are: (1) Because there are 
rights which are given to a citizen which are not 
given to one who is not a citizen. In nearly all 
the States only citizens are allowed to vote or to 
hold office; and in a country governed by the peo¬ 
ple it should be the aim of everyone to take part 
in the choosing of the men by whom the Govern¬ 
ment is to be carried on. (2) If a man is going to 
make a home for himself and his family here, if 
he is going to earn his living here, it is a duty to 
his family as well as to himself to take part, if he 
can, in the Government by which his rights and 
those of his family are to be cared for. 

Everyone who is born in the United States is a 
citizen, whether his parents were born here or not, 

( 3 ) 



4 


and whether they had become citizens of this coun¬ 
try or not. 

A foreign-.born person is made a citizen by a 
proceeding in court. There are a great many 
courts where this can be done, and one or more 
will be found in every State. When a court has 
once made a man a citizen, he is a citizen in every 
part of the country, and will be accepted as a citi¬ 
zen on producing the papers given him in the court 
when he is naturalized. If this paper is destroyed 
or lost, a copy can be had from the court which 
gave the paper which has been lost. 

One who wishes to become a citizen will want to 
know what will be required by the court which he 
asks to naturalize him. There are several things 
about which he has to bring evidence before the 
judge. The evidence must be statements made 
under oath by two persons who are citizens. The 
person who wants to be naturalized must show in 
this way: 

1. That he has lived in this country for at least 
five years. It is not necessary that he should have 
lived all of that time in the same city or town, but 
he must have lived in this country all of the five 
years, and one year in the State where he asks the 
court to make him a citizen. If he has lived part 
of the time here and part of the time in the old 
country the court will refuse his application. 

2. That he is a person of good moral character. 
This does not mean that he must have any particu¬ 
lar religion, or even that he must be a member of 


5 


a church. It does mean that he must be a person 
who behaves himself, who does not steal, or cheat, 
swindle, or assault other people. It means that 
persons who break the laws are not looked on here 
as persons who will be good citizens and fit to make 
laws for people who obey the laws. 

3. Evidence must also be given to the court by 
the person who wishes to be made a citizen that he 
believes in the form of government of this country. 
No man can believe in a thing which he knows 
nothing about. A citizen by his vote helps to 
govern the United States. It is necessary, there¬ 
fore, that one who wishes to become a citizen shall 
know the way this country is governed. So one 
who does not know how this country is governed 
is not a proper man to have a part in the govern¬ 
ing of it. He would not know how to use the 
rights of a citizen properly. It is not enough to 
know that there was once a man by the name of 
George Washington or to know the name of the 
man who is President at a particular time. One 
who wants to be a citizen should know how the 
laws are made, how the men who make them are 
chosen, and what officers see that the laws are 
obeyed. 

4. Anyone who believes that there should not 
be any government at all can not become a citizen. 
Anyone who teaches or believes it is right to kill 
or try to kill, or shoot, or stab a man for no reason 
except that he is an officer of the Government can 
not become a citizen. In this country the people 


6 


choose their own officers, and in most cases for not 
more than four years. The officer is a servant, not 
a master, of the people. If he abuses his office, or 
if he uses his office to abuse the people, he can 
be removed by the courts, or the President, or the 
Governor of the State, or when his term ends the 
people can put some one else in his place. So there 
can he no excuse for trying to kill, shoot, or stab 
an officer because he is an officer. 

5. To become a citizen a man must be able to 
speak the English language. He can become a 
citizen without this only when he is unable to talk 
at all, or when he has declared that he means to 
become a citizen and has settled on some of the 
land owned by the Government in the way the law 
provides. 

At least two years before a foreigner applies to 
the court to make him a citizen, he must go before 
the clerk of the court and swear to a written state¬ 
ment that he means to become a citizen of the 
United States, but this statement does not, by 
itself, make him a citizen of the United States. 
At the time he applies to the court to make him a 
citizen he must have resided within the United 
States for at least five years, and for one year im¬ 
mediately preceding such application in the State 
in which he makes application. A foreigner may 
go before the clerk of the court and swear to a 
written statement that he means to become a citi¬ 
zen of the United States at any time after he 
reaches the age of eighteen years. 


7 


What are the results of being naturalized? 

1. The naturalized citizen has the same rights in 
regard to property that one who is born here has; 
the same right to earn a living for himself and his 
family; to enjoy that which he has earned and 
which is justly his; the right to vote for the men 
who are to make the laws and the men who are to 
see that they are carried out. The naturalized 
citizen has just the same rights in the governing 
of the country as one who was born here. 

2. He has the right to be appointed to any public 
position or employment for which he is fit, or to be 
chosen by the people to any office in the Govern¬ 
ment except that of President. 

3. When a foreign-born man is naturalized, his 
wife, if she is a person who could herself be natu¬ 
ralized, and his children under twenty-one years of 
age become citizens also by his act, if they are in 
this country. They thus become entitled to the 
rights of citizens. 

4. If a man has become a citizen of the United 
States and afterwards goes back to the old country 
on a visit, he will be protected by this Government 
from unlawful arrest, or from being put in prison, 
or punished unjustly. This does not mean that if 
he does wrong, or had done wrong before he came 
away, this Government would stop his being pun¬ 
ished. It means that if he behaves as a good man, 
and had not done anything to be punished for be¬ 
fore he left the old country, this Government will 
not let him be put in prison or punished without 
cause. 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


The United States expects its citizens to live in 
this country, to work here and earn a living; to 
support and educate their children here. So if a 
man, having been naturalized here, goes back to 
the old country, or to any other foreign country, 
within five years after he has been made a citizen, 
to live there permanently, he is no longer consid¬ 
ered a citizen of this country and loses his rights 
as a citizen here. 

Is it not a great thing that one who comes from 
another land can become a citizen here, and have a 
vote which will count just as much as that of the 
President himself? Is it not a great thing that 
each foreigner coming here can have every right 
that anyone born in this country can have? 

Is it not worth your while by your behavior and 
industry to do your best to obtain this right for 
yourself and your family? 





























